Zombie Research Society
Since it’s commonly thought that a person’s hair and nails continue to grow after death, shouldn’t all male zombies have long beards? The short answer is: no.
Despite popular belief, human hair and nails do not continue to grow once a person has died. It is true that all the cells in a dead body don’t stop functioning at exactly the same time, but any resulting growth is negligible. Instead, the appearance of hair growth in a corpse can be explained by skin drying out and receding. This causes the familiar gaunt appearance, and also exposes hair that was once lying just beneath the surface.
A legion of zombies sporting five o’clock shadows is entirely possible, but long beards grown after death are extremely unlikely at best. So if you ever do run into a zombie with excessive facial hair it’s safe bet than the poor slob looked like that before he got infected.
In the end is it any less scary to be eaten by zombie George Michael than zombie Santa? We think not.